Made For Me And You
by Bexish
Summary: Rory's in Stars Hollow on a break from the campaign trail and someone new comes into her life. She's never met Jess before, but Christmas is a magical time of year... Slightly AU taking place after season 7.
1. On My Way to the City

"Are you guys here yet or am I going to have to get a cab home?"

"You won't need a cab. We're just running a little bit late…" In the background she could hear a car starting up, meaning that she was going to be on her own for at least half an hour. "Just grab a drink or something and we'll be there before you know it."

Rory sighed. Being on the road had been exciting at first, but she had spent the last two months looking forward to being at home for Christmas. Obama's campaign trail was going well so far, but she didn't get the political thrill out of it that some other people did. Truthfully, she was exhausted and wanted to go home. Throughout middle school and high school she had idolized Christiane Amanpour and had dreamed of a career being an overseas correspondent, but what she really wanted to do was be close to her family. It had changed so much over the last couple of years, and she didn't like being away for so long.

For the last couple of months Rory had considered resigning from her position on the campaign trail, but it was a risky bet. She didn't have another job lined up and could hardly interview at other places while she was on the road, so if she decided to quit then that was that for the time being. She would always have a place at home, but it seemed too much like moving backwards to move back home. She hadn't discussed it with Lorelai because she knew she would support her no matter what, but she kept going around in circles when she thought about it herself. Rory wasn't much of a spiritual person, but she wanted someone to give her some sort of sign that would push her in one direction or another.

Rory actually sighed as her black suitcase rolled toward her at the baggage claim. It was looking more beat up than usual, thanks to the nearly constant travel. It was fitting, since Rory was feeling more beat up than usual. She doubted a week at home would be enough to recharge completely, but hopefully it would make her feel a little bit more whole. She felt like over the last seven months she had left a lot of herself on metal folding chairs and hotel beds all over the country and that wasn't a great feeling. After graduation she was certain she had done the right thing by turning down Logan's proposal when the campaign job offer came along, but she would be lying if she hadn't wondered a time or two what it would be like to be settled at home somewhere with a fiancé and a regular job. It was probably a lot less stressful.

After a mojito at the airport bar, Rory was feeling a lot less stressed already. Just being in Connecticut was enough to make her feel a little more grounded. She was idly stirring the ice cubes in her class when her phone bleeped with a text, indicating that her mom and Luke were at the airport somewhere. Since it was two days before Christmas the airport was absolutely packed, and she figured there was no way she was going to find them if they were both moving around so she decided to stay put. For once, she felt like the relaxed person in a sea of stressed out people. She was usually the one dashing around, trying to make it to the next plane or bus on time. Now everyone else was racing around, trying to catch a flight somewhere for Christmas. Rory considered ordering another drink to add to this relaxed feeling, but before she could wave the bartender over her mom and Luke wove their way up to the bar.

"Oh, Luke. Seven months on the road and our girl has taken to the bottle. I knew it would happen." Lorelai put her hand over her heart in mock sorrow, even though she was the one who told Rory to grab a drink in the first place.

"Welcome back, Rory," Luke said affably, going straight past Lorelai's comment like he usually did.

"Thanks, Luke," Rory said, hopping off the stool to hug them both. "April didn't want to tag along?"

"She's catching up with some old swim friends today, but she'll be home for dinner. She'll be over at your mom's house," he corrected himself, tripping over his words slightly. "We're having dinner with you guys tonight."

Lorelai picked up Rory's suitcase and grimaced. "You would think after being on the road so much you would learn to pack a little lighter," she said. "And I was going to wait until we got home, but since Luke so gracefully provided me with a segue, I'll just tell you right now. Luke moved into the house."

"Wow, that's great!" Rory wasn't entirely surprised, but it was great news either way. Her mom had been so happy with Luke and both she and Rory had been devastated when the relationship ended. "I'm glad things are going so well for you guys."

"Consider it your Christmas gift," Lorelai said, linking her arm through Rory's. "You and me and Luke and April, all together for the holidays."

Rory smiled. "That does sound great," she agreed. "But that's not my only Christmas present, right?"

Lorelai pouted. "You're gone for months on end and all you're worried about is your presents?"

"I didn't see you for my birthday," Rory pointed out. "I've heard in some cultures the 22nd birthday is the biggest one a girl has."

"Is that so? I didn't realize we were a member of that culture," Lorelai said. "Even so, some presents might have collected while you were gone. And souvenirs from town events. And a few tape recordings of town meetings I attended in your absence."

"Stars Hollow hasn't been the same without you," Luke added.

As her mom and Luke chattered on their way to the car, Rory considered Luke's statement. She hadn't been the same without Stars Hollow, either. She had always prided herself in her independence and desire to travel and experience the world, but it wasn't all it cracked up to be. She was completely burned out. She knew she couldn't live in Stars Hollow forever, but she wanted to live somewhere besides a hotel. _This week_, she decided. This week she would figure out what she was going to do with her life in the new year.


	2. Sitting Bored

It wasn't until after dinner that Rory considered unpacking her suitcase. At the start of the campaign she had been vigilant about getting things unpacked as soon as she checked into her hotel room, but she had quickly given up on that. Sometimes she was only in a hotel for a night and unpacking things was just wasting time she could have spent writing. She doubted the people on the trail from the New York Times were unpacking at every hotel, and she was just writing for a small online site.

That was another thing that bothered Rory about her job. She enjoyed the site she was writing for a lot and her boss was a very nice person, but she still wasn't over the fact that she had been passed up for the fellowship at the Times. She felt like she was good enough to be writing for a bigger publication, and it was frustrating when the stats came in and only a couple hundred people or so read her latest article. Some pieces did get a lot more views than others, but it was disheartening to see really low numbers when she was reporting from little towns in the Midwest. Media was moving online, but some sites were still more popular than others and the site she was writing for wasn't one of the more popular ones. No one was checking her stories before they checked CNN.

She didn't regret taking the job, exactly. She had met a lot of interesting people and had been to some really amazing places. Philadelphia in particular had been great. She was all over any sandwich covered in Cheez Whiz, and she had gone to a really cool bookstore while she was there. But she could travel to interesting places in her free time if she had a different job, too. If she had taken the job at the Providence Journal she could have taken a quick trip to Philadelphia or home if she wanted. But most of the places she visited just ran together, a nondescript blur filled with bad coffee and the smell of pen ink. She was getting a lot of experience, but she could have gotten a lot of experience with another job, too.

Rory had made a lot of pro and con lists about the situation and was debating sharing them with someone, but when she reached into the front pocket of her suitcase it was empty. Upon opening the suitcase, it was obvious why. Despite the fact that the black suitcase looked exactly like hers, it wasn't. Instead of her favorite blue sweater and jeans being on top, she was looking at a lot of plain t-shirts and books. Good books, she noted, but books that were not hers. Cursing, Rory checked the tag on the handle. She hadn't done it at the airport because she had assumed no one would be caught dead with a suitcase as ratty as hers, which had been a mistake on her part. According to the tag the bag belonged to a Jess Mariano. After quickly Googling the area code of the phone number listed, Rory discovered that he or she lived in Pennsylvania.

It wasn't a huge deal that she had grabbed someone else's suitcase. She could call Jess and explain what happened and have the suitcase on its way to Pennsylvania by tomorrow. It was an inconvenience, but it was an honest mistake. However, that didn't explain the mystery of where her suitcase was. Hopefully it was waiting for her at the baggage claim in Hartford and she could go get it tonight. Two people couldn't be dumb enough to grab someone else's suitcase on the same day. Rory allowed herself exactly two minutes to bemoan her bad luck (and completely obvious oversight) and then dialed the number on the suitcase tag.

Rory hadn't counted on nobody answering the phone. It rang for a good thirty seconds before clicking to a generic voicemail message. Instead of leaving a message, she hung up. She would call them back every five minutes for the rest of the night if she had to. Rory felt terrible that she had someone else's suitcase and didn't want the message lingering in their voicemail. To her surprise, her phone rang almost immediately after she hung up. It was the number she had just called.

"Hello?"

"Is this Lorelai Gilmore?"

"Yes, who's this?" Rory asked, even though she knew. If the number was right, it was Jess Mariano.

"I'm Jess Mariano. I know you're probably not going to like this, but I accidentally grabbed your suitcase instead of mine earlier at the Hartford airport. I realize that's one of the stupidest things a person could do, but it looks exactly like mine. I didn't recognize your area code, but I'm hoping Hartford was your final destination and not just a layover."

"Oh, thank god," Rory said. "I thought I was the moron who grabbed the wrong suitcase and ruined everything. I've got your suitcase, too. I looked up your area code and it said it's a Philadelphia area code. Are you there now? I can send your suitcase back tomorrow if you give me your address."

"I'm not, no," Jess said. "I'm in Connecticut visiting my family for Christmas. Are you in Hartford? That's not far from where I am. I could return your suitcase tonight if you are."

"No, but I'm only about half an hour away from Hartford so it's not a big deal to drive there."

"Really? So am I," Jess said. "Where are you staying? Maybe we could meet somewhere closer than Hartford if there is a place."

Rory hesitated. Stars Hollow was a pretty small place and not a lot of people had heard of it, but that only made her more hesitant to tell Jess where she was. He was a stranger, after all. It was just a coincidence that they had grabbed each other's suitcases. She didn't really want to give him her location and then have him turn out to be a murderer or something. His suitcase had been filled with books, but that didn't mean he wasn't also a serial killer in his spare time. "Where are you? I'm from Connecticut, so I would probably know of a place we could meet if there's somewhere more convenient than Hartford."

"I'm in Stars Hollow," Jess said. "It's a really small place like half an hour from Hartford. I don't know even know if there is anything else around here. I'm just visiting family."

How was it even possible that this guy was in Stars Hollow too? Stars Hollow got a fair bit of tourism, sure, but it wasn't a huge destination. Rory knew a lot of the families in Stars Hollow too, and she had never heard of any Marianos. Maybe they were new in town or something. "I'm actually in Stars Hollow too," she said at last. "That's really weird. You're right, it's not a big place. Do you know anywhere in town where we could meet?" She wasn't about to go to his house or invite him to her own.

"Do you know where Luke's Diner is?" Jess asked. "I was over there earlier and I'm sure I could find my way back."

Rory almost laughed. She had been going to Luke's practically every day since they had been in Stars Hollow. Luke himself was sitting in her living room with his daughter. "Yeah, I know Luke. Luke's," she corrected herself, not wanting to tell him too much about her life. "Are you busy now? I could meet you there in half an hour if you could meet then." It was only seven, so Luke's was probably still fairly busy. Better yet, Lane would still be at work so she had someone to run interference if necessary.

"It works for me. I will see you in half an hour at Luke's then, Lorelai."

"It's Rory," she corrected him automatically. "I'll see you then."


	3. I'm Amazed

"Rory!" Lane exclaimed, setting down the plates she was carrying on a table and running toward her. "I can't believe you're here! Why are you here, by the way? I thought I wasn't going to see you until tomorrow."

"Something came up," Rory said, gesturing toward the suitcase she was holding. "My suitcase got mixed up with someone else's at the airport and I'm returning it to him. He's in Stars Hollow too, which is really convenient."

Lane's eyes narrowed. "That's too convenient. Stars Hollow is not exactly thriving socially. Are you sure he's not stalking you?"

Rory hadn't considered that. "Well now I'm not," she said truthfully. "But that's why I suggested meeting at Luke's. You're here, and there are a lot of other people around." That wasn't technically true. Only three tables were full. Still, there were witnesses in case something happened. "Actually, he suggested meeting at Luke's. He doesn't know a lot about Stars Hollow, but I guess he was here earlier?" Rory thought maybe Lane would remember seeing someone new earlier, but she shrugged.

"I didn't come in until three. It must have been before that. When did your plane get in?"

"Noon," Rory said a little sheepishly, realizing too late that there was no way Lane could have known that she'd had a drink before she even had lunch. "So that would make sense if he grabbed something to eat when he got into town. If we had come to Luke's earlier I might have seen him already. Weird."

"Do you think he's cute?" Lane asked meaningfully. Ever since Rory had ended things with Logan, Lane had been on her to date more. Besides Dean (twice) and Logan, Rory hadn't dated a whole lot of people. Okay, besides one slightly uncomfortable date in college, she hadn't dated anybody else. Unless grabbing hotel breakfast with other reporters counted as a date.

"I have no idea," Rory said. "I only talked to him on the phone for like a minute. You can't tell anything by how someone sounds. He could be fifty years old. Maybe he's here visiting his elderly mother for the holidays."

"Did he say he's here visiting his mom? What's his name?"

"Jess Mariano," Rory said. "I don't think there's anyone in town named Mariano though, so I have no idea who his mom is."

Lane started to say something, but Kirk beat her to it. "Lane, I've been waiting on my patty melt for ten minutes now and I can clearly see it sitting on the counter. Unless Luke's has become a place where we walk up to the counter and get our own food?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's not, Kirk," Lane said. "But look, Rory's home!"

"Hello, Rory," Kirk said amicably. "How's Europe been?"

"I wasn't in Europe," Rory said, confused. "I've been in the Midwest, mostly."

"Oh. Last time you left for a while you were in Europe."

Rory looked at Lane, who just shrugged. "No idea," she said, picking up Kirk's plate. "I should probably get back to work. Holler if you need anything, though. I've got a lot of knives back in the kitchen."

"Will do," she said, sitting at a table near the door to wait for Jess. She had gotten there a few minutes early to catch up with Lane so she had beat him there. She didn't have a real reason to be, but she was nervous about meeting Jess. Presumably he had opened her suitcase thinking it was his and had seen the things that she packed. Rory wasn't in the habit of traveling with terribly embarrassing things, but there was a chance that he had seen her underwear or something and that was a little embarrassing.

There was also a chance that Jess had stolen from her or had somehow come up with this whole story in order to stalk her, but that seemed incredibly unlikely. It was just a really strange coincidence that they were both in Stars Hollow. The fact that he had mentioned his mom but Rory didn't know anyone with the last name Mariano made her wonder a little bit, too. She knew most of the families in Stars Hollow, but the name didn't ring a bell. She hadn't asked her mom because Lorelai would probably make fun of her for not checking which suitcase she grabbed, so she was in the dark there. It was possible that his mom didn't have the same last name as him or was new in town, of course, but there were just a lot of things that seemed weird about the situation. Not a lot of weird things happened in Stars Hollow.

Well. Not things that were coincidentally weird. Kirk did live in Stars Hollow, after all.

Rory nearly jumped out of her skin when the bell over the door rang. The guy who walked in was maybe a little bit taller than her with dark hair that looked overly styled and a compact, slightly wiry build. Rory was pleased to notice that he looked more or less her age and wasn't an old man, even though it didn't particularly matter. All that mattered was that he was carrying a suitcase identical to the one that sat next to her chair.

"Rory?" he asked, walking over to her. He nodded toward the suitcase. "I saw that you had the suitcase and figured it must be you." He had called her Rory, she noticed. She had only said it at the end of the conversation, but he had remembered.

"That's me," she said inanely. "I'm glad we could meet up so easily. I felt so bad about the mix up. I thought I would have to send it back to you and it's a terrible time of year for trying to send things."

"No big deal," Jess said, waving her off. "Both of us landed in Hartford so we could have just met back up there. _I _felt really bad about it, though. I noticed that you had some presents in your suitcase when I opened in and was worried that you wouldn't get those back before the holiday."

So he had opened her suitcase. Well, of course he had. Who read their suitcase tag for fun once they got it home? "Has your family lived in Stars Hollow long?" Rory asked, feeling like she needed to say something else. "I've lived in Stars Hollow basically my whole life, so I know a lot of the people here."

"They've been here a few years," Jess said. "My mom moved here with her boyfriend a while back. She grew up here, though. My uncle actually owns this diner."

He said it so casually, like it didn't matter, but to Rory it was a huge revelation. Unless he was confused about who owned the diner (and how could be?), he was Luke's nephew. Luke had never mentioned a nephew before. Rory knew he had a sister because she remembered her mom saying she was going to her wedding with him a few years ago, but she had been away at Yale. Luke was annoyingly quiet about his family life. "That's crazy," Rory said, not sure how much information she should reveal about her life. "I came here all the time when I lived here."

"So you've met Luke then," Jess said with a nod. "I don't know him that well. I lived with my mom in New York until I moved to Philadelphia. I've been around a time or two though. I was here for my mom's wedding. It was a pretty big deal. Your town goes all out for things like that. I didn't know 90% of the people there."

"I wasn't in town for that," Rory said. "I heard it was really nice, though."

"It was pretty fruity, but my mom seemed to like it. I haven't been in town since then, though. It's quite a drive from Philly. Do you not live here anymore?"

"I've been traveling for work," Rory said. "I'm a journalist." It felt weird to say out loud, but it was the truth. She had dreamed her whole life of being a journalist and now that she was it was strange to refer to herself that way. It seemed like something that was still part of her future. "It's nice to be back, though. I love the holidays."

Jess nodded. "I wasn't going to come home, but my mom really wanted me to be here with my little sister so I flew in. It's going to be weird, though. We're having Christmas dinner with my uncle and his daughter, and I've only met her once. It's just a lot of family stuff."

"Tell me about it," Rory said, thinking of her own schedule for the upcoming days. Then she replayed what he said in her head. "Is this Luke or another uncle?"

"Luke," Jess said. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I've just talked to Luke a lot and he never mentioned his family much, so it's just interesting." That and to her knowledge, Lorelai and Luke were holding Christmas dinner at their house. She knew Sookie and Jackson and the kids were coming, but she didn't know Luke's long lost family was going to be in attendance.

"He seems like a pretty quiet guy," Jess agreed. "He came to visit the publishing house I work at last year with his daughter and he was kind of awkward the whole time. I think my mom told him to stop by or something. I don't think books are really his thing."

"I don't know how books aren't everyone's thing," Rory said. Then she blushed a little. She hadn't anticipated having a conversation with Jess. But even though he had only come to the diner to return her suitcase, she kind of wanted to talk with him more. She wanted to know more about him being related to Luke, and the publishing house he worked at. They could always talk about it more at Christmas dinner, though. That was going to be interesting. She wondered if she should warn him in advance that she would be there, but decided against it. It was just a coincidence, but she didn't want to seem like a weirdo for knowing his family. "I should probably get going," she said. "Maybe I'll see you around town, though." Or in her kitchen.

"Maybe," Jess said. "I'll be around until after New Year so I'll probably be around some. Although there isn't a lot going on here."

"I know," Rory said. "But I love it here. If I don't see you, have a nice visit."

"You too," Jess said, picking up his suitcase and setting hers down. "Merry Christmas, Rory." Rory watched him walk out the door, and then looked over at the counter where Lane was staring at her. She gave Rory a vigorous thumbs up, and Rory smiled. Obviously nothing would happen with Jess, but it was nice to think that she had met a cool person today. Maybe she would tell her mom and Luke what happened when she got home. Or maybe she would just leave things to chance.


	4. Never Seen Such a Beauty

A/N: This is my first fic that's been fairly non-canon so I'd love any and all feedback on how it's coming together! Jess' backstory isn't incredibly different so far but I've had to switch things up a little to fit the story.

* * *

"So who is this guy?" Lane asked, handing Rory a squirmy baby that she was pretty sure was Steve. Rory held him slightly awkwardly. The last time she had seen the babies they had only been a couple months old.

"He's just a guy who accidentally grabbed my suitcase," Rory said vaguely, looking around the small apartment. A Christmas tree stood in the corner, completely decked out in lights and garland. The floor under it was already littered with wrapped presents, even though it was still only Christmas Eve. "We know some people in common, that's all." She was hesitant to share the extent of what he had told her the night before, since Lane would never forgive her for going right home instead of spilling immediately. Rory had wanted some time to process all the weirdness, though.

Lane looked at her suspiciously. "How do you know people in common? You said you didn't recognize his name and he's obviously not from Stars Hollow." It was really hard to get things past Lane. Her capacity for gossip and being slightly nosy was infinite. Working at Luke's meant she often got to witness gossip firsthand, and Rory suspected that it was killing Lane to have to go through her for information.

"Well, he said Luke is his uncle," Rory admitted. "I didn't even know Luke had a nephew. I only knew he had a sister because my mom mentioned her before, back when she had her baby. She said that if she could have a baby at her age then she definitely could have kids with my dad…" She trailed off, slightly uncomfortable with the memory now that her parents were no longer together.

"He's Liz's son? I knew she had a son, but she said he lived down south somewhere and didn't make it up here a lot." Lane nodded thoughtfully. "His story checks out. I think he's for real."

"Of course he's for real," Rory said. "So you know Liz, then?"

"Oh yeah. She's in the diner with Doula all the time. She's the sweetest baby ever. She almost makes me want to have a daughter, but that's not going to happen for a while. We do playdates with the kids."

Rory left for a few months and her best friend was having playdates with a woman Rory had only heard of in passing. Another thing to put in the cons of being on the campaign trail column. She'd had a great time at Yale and had really enjoyed her job at first, but being home was a constant reminder of all the things she had missed out on while she was gone. "So you should know more about Jess than I do," Rory pointed out. "You talk to his mom all the time."

"She doesn't mention him much, though," Lane said, shrugging. "He lived with her in New York, but they didn't keep in touch as much when she moved to Stars Hollow. Where did he say he was from?"

"Philadelphia."

"Philadelphia, that's it. He moved to Philadelphia a few years ago and now they don't see each other that much. I'm guessing about all this, by the way," Lane clarified. "Liz really doesn't talk about him much at all. It's kind of sad, actually. If she hadn't mentioned him I never would have known she had a son. She seems so settled with TJ and Doula. Things can't be that bad between them if he's up here for the holidays, though."

Rory nodded. "He didn't seem particularly put out by the whole trip. He doesn't seem close to his family though. It was weird. He mentioned Luke a few times. He said he was going to be with Luke and his daughter on Christmas. I guess no one told him about my mom." She laughed. "Poor guy. He probably thinks he's going to have a nice quiet dinner with his family and instead he's going to show up at my house and be subjected to the loudest portion of Stars Hollow." Sookie wasn't too bad, but Jackson could get loud and according to Lorelai the kids had turned into Tasmanian devils after the new baby was born.

"Rewind. He's going to be at your house for dinner tomorrow?" The look on Lane's face was hard to read, but there was a hint of amusement there.

"I would assume so. He said he's going to Luke's house for dinner and Luke's house is now my house. Hey, did you know he moved in with my mom again?"

"Of course," Lane said, nonplussed. "Not that he told me, but I work where he used to live so it was pretty obvious. You didn't know?"

"Oh, of course I knew," Rory lied. "I just didn't know if it was common knowledge or not." She knew Lorelai had wanted to surprise her with the news, but it just made her feel so much more out of the loop. Even Lane knew, and Lane was busy with two very quickly growing babies. One of which chose the moment he was sitting on Rory's lap to start emitting a foul odor.

Lane noticed the smell too and whisked him off to the changing table on the other side of the room. "I can't wait until they're old enough to potty train them," she said. "Although I think I might let Zach handle that one. I get peed on enough changing diapers. So. Enough about babies and Jess for today. How has it been being out on the road? God, it sounds so glamorous."

"I wouldn't say glamorous," Rory said uncomfortably. "It's a lot of travel. Lots of busses, lots of airports. Lots of crappy fast food."

"That doesn't sound too bad for a fast food connoisseur like yourself."

"It's not, I guess," Rory said. "It just gets old after a while. Things tend to get pretty repetitive, especially visiting all those Midwest cities. We're heading out west when we get back though, so that could be pretty cool." She was looking forward to seeing Seattle, which was a nice change of pace from sort of dreading getting up to go to work in the morning. "I don't know. It seems exciting until you're actually doing it, I guess. It's like anything, you know? You just get used to it."

"I wish I knew what that was like," Lane said wistfully. "You never get used to having kids. The other day I woke up and laid in bed for ten whole minutes because Kwam woke up crying. It felt like he was a newborn all over again. I love it, but that brand new mom feeling hasn't gone away yet."

Rory nodded, even though she didn't understand at all. What would it be like to wake up every morning and actually have a life that felt brand new? The sheer drudgery of traveling so much was kind of making her feel like she would never have a new experience again. Which was ridiculous, of course, but Obama was very well received and it looked like he could be a strong contender in the upcoming election. If he did well who knew how long the job would last? She didn't want to be shoehorned into politics forever because of this job. But still, a job was a job and it was tough out there for journalists.

"Well, my brand new journalist went out the window somewhere in Ohio," Rory joked. "I feel like I end up repeating the same information a lot of the time. People don't ask interesting enough questions at these things."

"Let me know when I can catch him around here and I'll ask him what kind of underwear he prefers," Lane said. "Although I'm not sure I want to know. What if he becomes our president and every time I see him somewhere I think about how he's wearing a thong?"

"Barack Obama would never wear a thong!"

"You don't know that," Lane argued. "I'm sure he wears really expensive suits. Do you think he wants panty lines showing through? He gets photographed a lot."

Rory laughed. "Guys don't get panty lines! I'm sure he wears normal underwear. Like Zach. I'm sure he wears underwear like Zach."

"Great, now I'm going to picture the president in Scooby Doo boxers!"

As they laughed together, Rory felt more relaxed than she had in a long time. Even though things had changed, she and Lane were still best friends. They might have had a lot of different experiences, but they still had almost twenty years of friendship behind them and nothing could change that. Still, Rory felt a pang when she thought of leaving this all behind. She couldn't stay in Stars Hollow forever, but she didn't want to be on the road forever either. She knew sooner or later she was going to have to get some outside advice, but her support system could be a little too supportive sometimes. She was sure to get a lot of things from her family for Christmas, but what she really wanted was someone to make a decision for her.


	5. You Don't Hear

"Merry Christmas!" Lorelai stood in Rory's doorway, wearing an apron with reindeer on it. "It's 6am, why are you still asleep? We're making cinnamon rolls and we have apple cider and I think there might even be a couple of presents floating around somewhere…"

"You're making cinnamon rolls?" Rory asked skeptically, looking at Lorelai's pristine apron.

Lorelai glanced into the kitchen, where Rory could clearly hear Luke moving around preparing things. "Well, there will be cinnamon rolls. And there's bacon and orange juice and hot chocolate with marshmallows."

"And there will be omelets once you let me know what you want in yours!" Luke called.

"Real food," Rory said, climbing out of bed. "It's a Christmas miracle." Many of the Christmases of her youth had included eating Poptarts by the tree. It was great having someone who actually cooked around.

Out in the living room April was curled up on the couch with her nose in a book already, pretending she wasn't eyeing the stack of presents under the tree. Rory couldn't help but glance at them too. Being an adult didn't mean being immune to the allure of presents wrapped up in Christmas-themed paper. Rory hadn't asked for anything specific for Christmas since she had everything she needed for work and hadn't lived in a real home for months, but Lorelai was great at picking out presents.

"Are you sure you're ready for a Gilmore Christmas?" Rory asked April. "I hear dinner later could get pretty crazy."

"I think it'll be nice," April responded, patting Paul Anka on the head when he jumped up beside her. He seemed to have forgotten Rory completely in her absence. "I always like seeing Sookie and Jackson. Their kids are funny."

"Yeah, Davey and Martha are great." Of course, Sookie had another son now too. Rory hadn't even met him yet. He had been born when Rory was on the road and she was home so briefly over Thanksgiving that she didn't even have the opportunity to visit. "A word of advice, don't eat too much at breakfast. Sookie will probably make enough food to feed Tibet. We'll be eating pate for breakfast for a week."

April wrinkled her nose. "I'm a vegetarian now," she said. "Do you know what a cow goes through just so people can eat hamburgers?"

"Uh, no," Rory said, feeling a little guilty about the McDouble she had grabbed on her way home from the airport yesterday. Although in her defense, she wasn't even sure McDonald's used real meat in their burgers anyway. "It'll be nice having a relatively quiet dinner. My grandparents wanted us to go over there today, but relaxing with just Sookie and Jackson will be great." Of course, that wasn't what was happening, but Rory wanted to find out exactly how out of the loop she was.

April didn't disappoint. "It's not just Sookie and Jackson. My aunt and uncle are coming over too." She didn't offer up any other information and Rory wanted to ask more, but Lorelai interrupted by bringing mugs of hot chocolate in.

"I meant to tell you about that," she said, handing one to Rory. "Liz and TJ and their kids are coming over. I don't think you've met Liz before, have you?"

"I wouldn't call Jess a kid," Luke pointed out, bringing in the cinnamon rolls. "He's gotta be almost 23 by now. You wouldn't have met him either," he said to Rory. "The last time he was in town was for Liz's wedding and you were at school then. I haven't seen him in almost two years myself. He was working at a bookstore in Philadelphia then. I think he still does. You'll have to ask him about it."

"It was pretty cool," April said. "They had a lot of weird art hanging up. Jess' book was decent, too. Kind of reminiscent of Hemingway in some parts, but I'm sure he wasn't trying to rip him off."

Luke opened his mouth but then closed it, clearly at a loss for words. Rory was filled with a million questions, though. Jess had written a book? Luke had never mentioned having a nephew who was an author. He hadn't mentioned him at all. Rory figured they weren't very close if they rarely ever saw each other, but it was still interesting information. Luke was going to marry her mom at one point and Rory was just now finding out things about his life and family. For a practically lifelong close family friend, Luke wasn't much for sharing information.

"That was a lot of information for five minutes," Rory said, pointedly looking at her mom. At least Lorelai had the decency to look sheepish. Rory just shook her head. Everyone here was familiar with Luke's extended family but her. She hadn't felt like such an outsider since she started her job. Even the fact that she technically did know Jess didn't put her at ease. Her familiar Christmas at home wasn't turning out the way she planned at all and she wasn't sure that she liked it. She had nothing against meeting new people, but it was uncomfortable feeling like a stranger in her own family.

The awkwardness passed quickly once the rest of the food was brought out and everyone dug into their presents. Rory had been picking up things on the road, which had resulted in a lot of random things. She had been disappointed by not going to Seattle before Christmas because she planned on getting Lorelai a lot of coffee-related things, but there was always that option for Valentine's Day or her birthday. Even if Rory couldn't make it home again for a while, she could always ship them. For a while, Rory forgot about work as they all ate and exchanged gifts, but eventually the holiday conversation ran out.

April was the first offender. "So what's it like traveling so much? It sounds so glamorous." Glamorous was April's new favorite word. She had used it three times yesterday. In some ways she seemed mature, but she was still a 14 year old at heart. "I really want to just take like a year and drive around the country," she said. "There are so many cool places out there!"

"There are," Rory agreed. "But we don't always get to see a lot of them. There isn't much time for sightseeing when you're on the job." There had been a couple of times when Rory hadn't even left her hotel, because Obama was speaking in the same building.

"'On the job'. That sounds so grown up." April sighed. "I can't wait to finally be an adult. I can get my license in less than two years, you know." She looked at Luke when she said that, who became very interested in a leftover piece of bacon. Rory had to suppress a laugh. He couldn't imagine Luke ever buying April a car for her 16th birthday. The best April could hope for was him handing down his truck, and Rory suspected April wouldn't want to be seen driving a slightly rusty pick-up.

"It does get tiring," Rory pointed out. "It's a lot of being on busses and trains. We've had to fly a couple of times, but we're usually on a bus because it's cheaper."

"But you get to see so much of the country!" April argued. "I would love to see more of the country. New Mexico is pretty cool but it's a lot of desert. I just want to look at something besides sand."

Rory decided not to tell her that most of the Midwest was probably just as boring as the sand in New Mexico. There was a lot of grass in those middle states. It was called flyover country for a reason. Growing up on the east coast and in the southwest, April had probably already seen some of the best parts of the country. "I am excited to go out west," Rory relented. "We have a stop in Seattle so I'm hoping I can fit in some sightseeing."

"And California! Maybe you'll be in Los Angeles. You could run into movie stars!"

The probability of Rory running into Johnny Depp in a banquet room of a Hampton Inn was pretty unlikely, but April did make it sound exciting. The thing was, no matter how much other people talked up her job Rory knew how exhausting it could truly be. For every unique and interesting experience she'd had, there had been dozens of other hours of monotony. She had almost put that in the con column of one of her lists until she realized that was how life was in general. Her mom probably wasn't doing brand new exciting things every day at the inn.

Looking at Lorelai though, Rory thought she looked happy. She had a job that she loved and a home that she had worked hard on and a boyfriend that she would probably end up marrying. Rory had a job. Sure, she had her home here, but that was more her mom and Luke's home than anything. When she had gone in her room to unpack everything felt stale and looked like it hadn't been moved since she left. The more she thought about it the more she wanted to just quit and look for something new, but what kind of person would she be if she quit her first real job after just a few months because it wasn't as fun as she thought it would be? That was ridiculous. That sounded like something one of Logan's friends would do.

Logan. Rory hadn't thought about him in weeks, but she did wonder what he was up to. Had he taken that job offer in San Francisco? They hadn't kept in touch at all and she wasn't good enough friends with anyone in his friend group to call one of them up and chat. Honor had called her the day after the break up in tears, saying that Logan dumping her was the worst possible thing that could have happened to their family and that even though they weren't getting married she and Rory would always be like sisters. Rory hadn't heard from her since. Which, considering how often she saw Gigi and April (who was as good as her step-sister), was par for the course.

Rory allowed herself one big sigh before pulling herself together and heading to the bathroom to get ready for dinner. It was Christmas. She was with her family, and she was going to meet people who could be her family members in the future if Luke and her mom did end up getting married. It was going to be a great day and she wasn't going to think about her job or personal life anymore. And she would see Jess again at dinner, which could be a fun surprise. Looking in the mirror, Rory wondered if she should borrow some of her mom's fancy foundation. Her face had been looking a little blotchy lately, no doubt from barely sleeping and only eating terrible fast food. Not that there was anyone at dinner she was trying to impress, but it was important to look her best for such an important group of people.

* * *

A/N: I had to drag it out just a liiiiittle more before Rory would see Jess again :) But don't worry, the next chapter will be all about Christmas dinner!


	6. Maybe You're Just Too Busy

As predicted, Sookie had made more food for dinner than was probably present at the last supper. Along with her traditional Christmas ham there was turkey, roast beef and three different kinds of pasta salad since she had found out that April was a vegetarian. Luke, being Luke, had made a bunch of sliders to eat before dinner (Lorelai insisted on calling them hors d'oeuvres but that was a little fancy for tiny cheeseburgers). Rory was anticipating not wanting to eat again until New Years. Of course, a third of the people who were going to be eating the food weren't there yet.

Being completely honest with herself, Rory was a little bit nervous. The other day it had seemed like a fun surprise if she didn't tell Jess that he was going to be at her house for dinner, but now she wondered if she should have given him a heads up. Now he could either pretend they had never met, which had been disastrous when Marty did the same thing to Rory in college, or they could go through the story of how they met for everyone. It wasn't anything scandalous, but Rory knew Lorelai would give her the third degree when she found out that Rory hadn't told her right away. Rory usually shared everything with Lorelai, but this just felt different for some reason. Meeting Jess had clued her into a whole part of her life that everyone seemed to know about but her.

Of course, Jess hadn't mentioned Lorelai when he said he was having dinner with his family. Maybe he didn't even know Lorelai existed. He could be walking into this completely unprepared, which was exactly how Rory was feeling. It was stupid to be worried about seeing Jess. Yes, there was a chance there would be awkward introductions and explanations all around, but Jess was also pretty good-looking. Rory was only going to be in town for a week and then she would probably never see Jess again, but she had to admit that a part of her was interested in seeing him again. After breaking up with Logan she hadn't had a lot in the way of romantic interactions. It had been hard to adjust to being single after being in two long-term relationships that were basically back to back and even something as simple as just going on a date seemed exciting to her. Her life had been feeling a little pathetic in that respect lately. She chatted with some of the other journalists and hung out with them sometimes, but there was a definite co-worker dynamic there. Most of the men she had met through work were quite a bit older than her and married.

This was a family dinner though, and not a date. So when the doorbell rang and both Lorelai and Luke were busy in the kitchen, she answered the door.

"You must be Rory!" The woman on the porch immediately threw her arm around Rory, expertly juggling a little girl with her other arm. "Oh, your mom has told me so much about you."

"It's nice to meet you," Rory said, feeling a bit nonplussed. She also felt a little guilty, considering Liz knew 'so much about her' and Rory didn't know anything about her. She wasn't even sure the woman hugging her was Liz. "This must be Doula! She's beautiful."

"She's a year old already, can you believe it?" Not waiting for an answer, she turned toward the driveway. "Come on, Rory's letting all the warm air out while you guys stand around!"

"Rory?" One of the figures walking up the driveway sounded familiar. "What are you doing here?" Jess stepped onto the porch, holding a bottle of wine. Rory respected that he had come prepared for a semi-nice dinner, although she assumed the wine was actually from Liz and TJ.

Rory was about to respond, but decided it would be best to talk inside. Liz and TJ headed to the kitchen to greet everyone else, but Jess hung back, clearly waiting for an explanation. "I live here," she said. "Or I did. This is my mom's house. Well, hers and Luke's now."

"So that would mean..."

"Luke is dating my mom and lives here with her and I am her daughter and also live here when I am not at work."

"Gotcha. So the other day at the diner when I returned your suitcase…" He trailed off, looking at her to fill in the rest.

"I knew you would be here once you said you were going to your uncle's for Christmas dinner, yes."

"Uh huh." Rory couldn't really read Jess' expression, but if she had to guess she would say he looked a little bit amused and possibly a bit bewildered. "I guess I could have told you, but I figured you would think I was crazy."

He nodded, more like he understood than like he thought she was actually crazy. "It is quite the coincidence."

"Yes it is," Rory said lightly, even though her heart was pounding a little bit. She had built up this whole reveal in her head and it seemed like she had built it up too much, because Jess was being quite casual about the whole thing. She had gotten all worked up for nothing. And no one else was even listening to their conversation to know that they had already met. It was odd, but Rory was actually a little bit disappointed. It would have taken some explaining, but at least meeting Jess already had made her feel like she had something that connected her to everyone else that was there.

"Not a bad coincidence," Jess said, giving Rory one last look before he joined his family in the kitchen. Rory hovered in the foyer for a minute, not quite sure what to make of that. As she hovered outside the kitchen, April gave her a look.

"What was that about?" she asked, sounding a little too suspicious for Rory's liking.

"He didn't know Luke was living here so I was explaining who I was."

April nodded, not seeming convinced. "I've only met him once, but he wrote a book. That has to be a good sign, right?" Before Rory could say anything she walked into the kitchen with everyone else, leaving Rory alone in the foyer. For a second Rory thought about going into the living room to check on Davey and Martha, but instead she decided to join everyone else in the kitchen. Between not knowing how to interpret her conversation with Jess and April's odd statement, she wasn't sure how the night was going to go. At the very least she figured it would be interesting.

* * *

A/N: Ah I realize this chapter was a bit of a tease but it was getting kind of long so I figured I would make the next part its own chapter. That will be up very soon!


	7. Who's to Say

No one even noticed when Rory first walked into the kitchen. Doula had been passed over to Luke and Liz was holding Sookie's son Joey, who looked downright tiny compared to Doula despite Liz cooing about how big he was getting. Jess had already taken a seat at the table and was drinking a beer with TJ and Lorelai, which made Rory slightly nervous.

"What were you off doing?" Lorelai asked, handing Rory a glass of wine as she sat down at the table. "You were missing the party."

"I was just checking in on Davey and Martha," Rory said, which wasn't totally untruthful. She had glanced in the living room on her way through the foyer. "They're both glued to the TV, of course." Considering there were Christmas movies on nearly every channel she figured that one was probably the truth.

"I say let them watch TV," TJ said. "I wish Doula was old enough to be interested in the TV for more than a minute or two. Nothing wrong with something easy to keep them occupied. Now Liz is all about taking her to baby yoga and trying to cleanse her chakras, but I don't think she needs that."

"You think babies don't get stressed out too?" Liz asked. "Babies pick up on negative energy twice as fast as adults. It's why they need so many naps. It helps them recharge and rid themselves of the negativity."

TJ rolled his eyes. "The only thing Doula's ridding herself of when she naps ends up in her diaper." Across the table, Jess smiled at her ruefully. _So far, so good_, he mouthed. Despite what Rory had been expecting, he was right. Everything seemed like a normal family dinner so far, despite there being a lot more people and food in the kitchen than there had ever been.

"Not to interrupt the diaper talk, but these are done," Luke said, setting a platter of tiny cheeseburgers down the table. Rory immediately had one, glad to have a reason to delay actually engaging in conversation for a minute. She wanted to just enjoy the people talking around her before she had to field the inevitable job questions. Unfortunately, her moment of piece lasted exactly half a bite of slider.

"So Rory, Luke says you're a journalist!" Liz said, bouncing Joey in her arms. "That must be exciting. I thought about becoming a journalist for a little while in college but decided against it."

"Liz, you went to community college for a semester before you failed out," Luke said, dragging the table leaf out of the closet.

Liz waved him off. "It was that damned pot," she said. "I could've been a good journalist if I had actually made it to class once in a while. Luckily we've got Rory to do the job for us."

Rory laughed, feeling awkward. "Well, I'm not conquering the world just yet," she said, taking a sip of wine.

"Just the Midwest, so far," Lorelai chimed in. "But after the holidays she's headed off to the west coast. She's covering Obama's campaign trail, so she's been all over the country." Lorelai loved talking up Rory's job almost as much as she loved Rory, but it made her feel a little bit uncomfortable since lately it didn't feel like she was doing anything worth bragging about.

Liz shook her head, looking awed. "What is it with the younger generation? You're all conquering the world and we're just sitting at home watching the days pass us by." Liz considered this. "Until the renaissance circuit starts up again, anyway. Did you know Jess wrote a book? And he owns his own bookstore. You kids are both so damn smart."

"I don't own a bookstore," Jess argued. "I just work at one. It's actually mostly a publishing company. We've got the bookstore too but the publishing is the main part. Not that we publish a ton of books."

"Don't devalue yourself like that!" Liz exclaimed. "It's a great place. Really artsy. There's a lot of good energy going on there."

"I would love to check it out," Rory offered, glad she could finally add something of value to the conversation.

"Are you ever in the Philadelphia area for work? It's pretty centrally located," Jess said.

Rory shook her head. "We were over there a couple of months ago, actually. We were able to stay an extra day so I did a little sightseeing. I actually did go to a bookstore while I was there, but I'm sure there are a dozen bookstores so I have no idea if it was yours or not."

"It's not a very big place," Jess said. "We're hoping we'll be able to expand eventually. We just put in a bar, but we don't have it up and running yet. It's called Truncheon Books."

Rory wasn't sure of the exact name of the bookstore she had visited, but that sounded familiar. Excusing herself, she went into her room and dug through her suitcase for the book she'd packed on the off chance that she got some time to read over the break. The receipt from the bookstore was still tucked into the front cover. She had optimistically kept it to use as a bookmark, but she hadn't gotten a chance to start reading it yet.

"Truncheon Books!" she announced, holding the receipt up as she walked back into the kitchen. "I can't believe I was actually there."

"You've always had good taste in bookstores," Lorelai pointed out.

"That's such a crazy coincidence," Liz said. She sounded like she wanted to add something else, but Joey picked that moment to let out an ear-splitting wail, which set Doula off. In the living room, one of the kids turned up the volume on the TV to drown out noise, effectively cutting off all conversation, which was fine by Rory. It was definitely just a coincidence that Rory had visited Jess' bookstore, but it was the second Jess-related coincidence that Rory had. She wasn't the type to read much into coincidences, but it was certainly interesting. From the look Jess was giving her, it seemed like he thought so too.

Which was why, when Lorelai announced that they needed ice cream for their pie and Jess offered to run to the store, Rory said she would tag along. She tried to act like it was to take a little break from being around all the kids, but she could tell Lorelai didn't believe her. Rory was sure that her mom was imagining some nefarious reason for Rory wanting to go with Jess, but the truth was that Rory hadn't gotten to talk to him much over dinner with everyone else there and she just wanted to get to know him. Between visiting his bookstore and the suitcase mix-up Rory figured they could at least have one good conversation, and she was looking forward to talking without familial interruptions.

"So was it everything you expected it to be?" Rory asked as they pulled out of the driveway. Surprisingly, Jess turned the right way once they got to the road. Of course, Stars Hollow was hardly a maze.

"I didn't expect you to be there," Jess said, not beating around the bush. "That was a little unfair, by the way. You knew I would be there but didn't share that with me."

"I thought it would be more interesting this way," Rory said with a shrug. "And it was, wasn't it?"

"It was a surprise," Jess agreed. "I thought it was just going to be Luke and his daughter. Typical Liz to not think to mention that he's got a whole other family going on now. She mentioned he was engaged a couple of years ago but I thought that didn't work out."

"It didn't, but they got back together," Rory said. "So you and Liz were sort of both right. Does she do that a lot?"

"Completely space out and not mention things? All the time. She actually called me on my way to the airport the other day to ask if I was planning on coming for Christmas. She had totally forgotten that she had invited me like a month ago."

"Was it worth the trip at least?"

"Sure," Jess said, pulling up in front of Doose's. "Some girl stole my suitcase at the airport though, so that was kind of a pain."

"She probably didn't steal anything from your suitcase, though. Someone took my suitcase and stole all my stuff."

"I don't think that happened at all," Jess said, walking into the store. Even though it was Christmas day the store was open, which was probably not helping business considering the store was empty besides the cashier.

Rory grabbed a carton of vanilla ice cream out of the freezer, and then grabbed mint chocolate chip and chocolate too in case people preferred to just eat ice cream. As much as she loved pie, Rory kind of wanted to make a milkshake out of all three. "Well, it's my suitcase so I guess you'll never know. It's good that I got the suitcase back though. It's got a long way to go still."

"How long are you going to be traveling?"

"I'm not sure," Rory said. "It could be a while still. It seems like it's going well so I'll probably be on the road at least a few more months." She thought she sounded pretty neutral about the whole thing.

Jess didn't seem to agree. "Do you not like it? I mean for some people that would be a really sweet deal, getting to travel all around the country."

"It's great," Rory said with a shrug. "It's fine. I've just been traveling a lot and it's not really what I expected it to be. And I don't really love not knowing how long this job is going to last. I like knowing what's coming. I've actually been thinking a lot about whether or not I want to keep going with it." She hadn't confided in anyone else yet, but Jess seemed like a safe bet. He was only going to be in town for the week and she doubted he would share her feelings about her job with anyone else.

"That's a big decision," Jess said as they walked out of Doose's. Rory was ready to drop the subject completely, but once they got back in the car Jess spoke up again. "Do you want to get coffee or something tomorrow and talk about it? I might not be much help, but the job does sound really interesting."

For a brief second Rory actually thought Jess asked her out, but that was impossible. He just wanted to talk about her job. For all she knew he just wanted to know who she knew in the industry. He was a writer, after all. Maybe he was interested in journalism or writing for the site she worked for. It was practically a business meeting. No harm there. "Sure," Rory said. "Coffee sounds good."


	8. Unnoticed By You Everyday

A/N: This one got kind of long. These two have a way of getting away from me. I'm still figuring out this whole not-just-dialogue fic thing. I'll get there!

* * *

Even though it was only December 26th, Weston's had stopped serving their candy cane coffee already. Truthfully, minty coffee was slightly disgusting, but Rory and Lorelai had been drinking it every holiday season since she was in middle school. When she was too young to drink coffee every day it had felt like a luxurious treat, something special she wasn't allowed to have the rest of the year. Now she mostly drank it out of a sense of tradition. Weston's made a fine cup of coffee, but the candy cane stuff was not it. Even so, Rory was still a little disappointed that she wasn't going to have her special Christmas coffee for the second year in a row.

She and Jess could have met at Luke's, but Rory thought that might be a little awkward with Luke working. The last thing she wanted was Luke to go home and tell Lorelai that she and Jess were bonding or something. Everyone had been a little bit too interested in Rory's romantic life lately. At least once a month she had to field a not-too-subtle question from Lorelai about whether or not there was anyone she had her eyes on. Every time Rory said no Lorelai asked if she was still hung up on Logan, which was never a fun conversation. Truthfully, most days she felt completely over Logan. They had just gotten together at a bad time. The thing was, now was hardly a better time to start a new relationship.

Rory had mentioned that to Lorelai, which had produced a rant about how Rory needed to just date for a little while and not jump into another relationship. Never mind the fact that Lorelai She didn't want to be going out with a new person every weekend. She had gotten really lucky when it came to her last two boyfriends in that she had met them in organic ways. There hadn't really been any awkward formal dating. Lorelai had cautioned her that relationships didn't start like that often, but Rory thought that it could happen again. She wasn't in a big hurry to be in a relationship. It was pretty much impossible on the road anyway. Even so, it was on her mind a lot. It seemed like everyone around her was in relationships now.

She was wondering whether or not Lorelai would count this meeting today as a date (even though she didn't at all) when Jess showed up, looking no worse for the wear after their dinner last night. Predictably, things went downhill after dinner. The choice of desserts and ice creams proved to be too much for Sookie's kids, who both went into a sugar frenzy after dinner and nearly knocked poor Doula over every time she got too close to them. It was also over dessert that Luke and Jackson got into an argument over how to properly bake a pie, despite the fact that Jackson had never baked a pie before. Rory had tried to point that out, but Jackson insisted it was the principle of the thing and that had Sookie been in the room she would have appreciated his effort. Rory suspected Jackson had slipped a little rum into his eggnog.

"Sorry I'm late," Jess said, sitting down across from her. "I guess I should have suggested Luke's. At least I knew how to get there. I almost walked into a plate store three times trying to find this place. Actually, I think it might have been three different plate stores."

Rory nodded knowingly. "The people here really like collectible plates."

"So this place is really like an outpatient mental institution or something?"

"Hey, there are some really cool people here!" Rory argued. "And then there are also some people who are really into plates with cats printed on them. The two circles rarely overlap, I'll admit."

"So your plates don't have cats on them, then?"

"Of course not," Rory said. "They have the original Charlie's Angels on them, obviously." Jess looked like he didn't quite know whether or not she was telling the truth. Since they had used paper plates at dinner last night he would never know that they did indeed own plates with the Charlie's Angels on them. "Okay, so tell the truth," Rory said, deciding thirty seconds spent on collectible plates was enough. "You're just here so I can hook you up with some sort of writing job, right?"

Jess smirked, which was a little rude but also a little refreshing. Everyone at home was talking up her job like it was a huge important thing and it was nice to see that someone didn't feel the same way. "Not at all. No, I'm good where I'm at. That's not really my kind of writing. It's interesting, though. What made you want to be on the road so much?"

"I don't know," Rory said truthfully. "I never really wanted to be on the road constantly. I always thought it would be amazing to be an overseas correspondent or something, but I had never thought about traveling like I am now. The job just kind of fell in my lap. I was writing some entertainment pieces for this online publication and the editor offered me the campaign trail job."

"You went from entertainment to politics? That's a big jump."

"Well, I worked on the paper in college so I've had experience writing all kinds of pieces," Rory said, feeling like she was reciting her résumé. "I mostly wrote feature pieces, but I covered other things too when they needed me to. I did like the features best, though. Politics gets tiring really quickly."

Jess laughed. "I bet CNN would disagree with you on that one. I guess when you're just covering one guy everyday things could get repetitive though."

"God, tell me about it," Rory said. "The actual writing was interesting for maybe a month, but it feels like I'm just rehashing old stuff all the time now. I try to give my pieces some color interviewing locals and things, but even that doesn't offer a lot of interest because they either love Obama or hate him, just like everyone else in every city I cover. And my editor hates when I actually try to write about the places we're visiting. He says it's just unnecessarily padding my articles, but half the time it's the only thing that makes one article different from the last one…" She trailed off, stirring her coffee. "Sorry, that was a lot of words."

"It's fine," Jess said. "I did say I think it's interesting, although I can see how it would get old fast. At least you get to travel, right?"

Rory shrugged. She felt so whiny complaining about getting to travel around the country for free (though really, she was making so little money that it was practically the same as paying for it), but it was hard to talk it up. "Like the writing, it was fun at first. But let's be honest, you've seen one city in the Midwest and you've seen them all." Midwesterners would probably disagree, but having grown up on the east coast she had seen a lot of really cool places that weren't that far from home. To her, the Midwest was just one giant field.

"I honestly haven't even been anywhere in the Midwest," Jess said. "I switched trains in Chicago going out to California once, but I don't think that counts."

"Oh, you've been to California? I've always wanted to go to San Francisco." Rory could take or leave southern California and the celebrity obsession, but San Francisco had always seemed like a really cool place. Unfortunately, it hadn't been scheduled as a stop on the campaign trail.

Jess nodded. "After high school I went out there for a summer to visit my dad. I was down south, though. He lives in Santa Monica. Total beach bum. I don't think he would even know how to get to San Francisco. I didn't last long out there."

Rory examined Jess' jeans and leather jacket. "Yeah, you don't look particularly Californian. I don't know that I would like living out there much." Funny how less than a year ago Rory had actually been considering moving out there with Logan. "I'm excited about seeing Seattle when we get back on the road, though."

"Considering I've seen you twice in the last two days and I've seen you drink five cups of coffee, I think I can see why," Jess said. Rory scowled. There was no way it had been five cups. She only had two, maybe three, after dessert last night. "That's the only place you're excited about, though? The election is almost a year away. You could be at this awhile."

Rory groaned. "I know. I wish we were going to places that were a bit more exciting. I guess that's not the point of the trail, though."

Jess looked at her like he wanted to say something, but instead he turned back to looking at the menu. "What?" Rory said finally. "I can tell there's something you want to say. You're looking at me rather judgmentally."

"I am not!" Jess said. "But okay. Why do you want to keep this job? You don't seem interested in any of it. You could take a vacation if you want to see Seattle."

"I am interested," Rory argued. "It's my job. Of course I'm interested."

"Okay, why did you take the job?" Jess shot back.

"It was a good opportunity."

"Try again. And this time don't act like I'm interviewing you."

"Fine," Rory said. "A few days before I got the job my boyfriend proposed to me. He got a job out in San Francisco and had looked into a lot of papers around there and wanted me to come with him and get married. I told him I thought it was too soon to get married and he broke up with me. So when my editor offered me the job a couple of days later it just seemed like a good idea. I had turned down a job at a paper in Rhode Island and someone else took it right away and I didn't get the fellowship I wanted at the Times and I didn't have a boyfriend anymore, so it seemed like a good change of pace. There wasn't a whole lot going on for me here." Rory had never told anyone the real reason she took the job before. Everyone thought it was just a good opportunity and she was being smart for gaining the experience, but she had really just wanted to get away from all the things she had failed at for a while.

Only now the failure didn't bother her so much. She hadn't seen it at the time, but she hadn't really failed at anything. Turning down the job at the Providence Journal might have been a bit shortsighted, but she had wanted to hold out for something that she truly wanted. And with hundreds of applicants for the fellowship, it wasn't exactly surprising that she hadn't gotten it. And as for Logan, well, it was entirely his decision to break up with her. She knew it didn't have to be all or nothing, but he didn't and that was his problem. So her time on the road had helped her think more clearly, only now she was stuck in a position that she didn't love. The idea of being back home didn't seem as empty and ominous anymore, but she didn't know how to get there.

Jess didn't say anything, which prompted Rory to talk more. "My mom and I had planned a big trip over the summer. We were going to ride the biggest roller coasters at every amusement park worth visiting and gorge ourselves on corn dogs and cheese fries and it was going to be perfect. Instead I went to work and spent my summer on a bus and in hotel rooms. And when fall came around and my birthday and Thanksgiving started getting closer, I just wanted to be back home. But I couldn't quit. I can't quit. What would people think if I quit?"

"That you didn't like the job?" Jess suggested. "That it wasn't right for you, and that you would rather be doing something else?"

"They don't just hand out jobs though," Rory pointed out. "Quitting without having another job lined up is so shortsighted. This job barely pays anything and that's been fine on the road, but I would have to get a job right away if I was home because I don't have a lot saved up. I was so stupid in college. I had a job swiping people's lunch cards for like a week before it started interfering with my homework and I dropped it and now I don't have enough money to even get an apartment on my own. I would have to live at home with my mom."

Jess shrugged. "Is that so bad? You seem to like your mom. I share a one bedroom apartment with three other guys right now. There's not a lot of pride in that. Everyone goes through crap before they work things out. Not having your dream job right away isn't a big deal. You're allowed to try other things. I don't know if I'm going to work at the publishing place forever. It's a cool gig, but if I get bored in a year and want to move on to something else then I will. No big deal."

"It's a huge deal," Rory disagreed. "I can't just be some quitter."

"Is anyone really going to think you're a quitter?"

"I don't know. Probably not." Rory judged herself more harshly than anyone did. Lorelai had always been nothing but supportive of Rory, except for when she had dropped out of Yale which was completely understandable. "I don't really know if I want to find out though. What if my editor won't give me a good recommendation and no one else will give me a job?"

"Then you try other places. Look, I can't tell you what to do," Jess said. "But I haven't known you very long and judging by what you've said, you're not happy with your job. So do something that makes you happy."

Rory sighed, taking the last sip of her coffee. "Honestly, I don't really even know what makes me happy anymore."

"Then find out," Jess said, looking at his watch. "Hey, I hate to have to run so soon but I told my mom I'd watch Doula while she does something weird with her friends. Maybe I'll see you around, though."

"Yeah, see you around," Rory echoed as Jess stood to leave. She wasn't sure how helpful his advice had been. It certainly didn't sound easy. But it had been nice to have someone to really talk to. She had a lot to think about.


	9. Take My Time, Making Eyes

A/N: Sorry I didn't update this more quickly! Turns out working on three fics at once is kind of exhausting and slightly impossible at times. I'll be better about updating soon, though! ETA: And sorry for the formatting issue the first time around! It doesn't usually do that.

* * *

Tiring. Repetitive. (_Really_) low pay. Travel anxiety. Living out of hotel rooms. Not being able to go home. Dealing with getting mail on the road. Looking out of bus windows in the Midwest. Terrible coffee. No diner food is as good as Luke's. It's impossible to find a boyfriend.

Rory sighed and tossed her pen on her desk. After she talked to Jess she had decided to make an in-depth pro and con list, and it wasn't going as well as she had hoped. Starting with the cons was her first mistake. After thinking of everything she hated about her job, no matter how petty, she couldn't think of any good reason to stay.

Okay, she could think of one reason. If she stuck with this job then she wouldn't have to say that she quit. Rory hated the idea of being a quitter. After she dropped out of Yale she had lost a lot of respect for herself initially, even though she tried to pretend it was the right move. It was one thing to quit watching a movie or quit reading a book if you weren't satisfied, but she couldn't quit her first big job. It wasn't her favorite thing in the world and no, it didn't make her happy, but being a quitter wouldn't make her happy either.

What she really needed was someone else's opinion. A real, solid yes or no answer. Lorelai always said that Rory put too much pressure on herself, but no one else ever really put pressure on her. School had been full of pressure, sure, but teachers put pressure on everyone there. Lorelai was always so proud of Rory no matter what she did and while it felt great, it was ultimately unhelpful. Her grandparents were similarly no help. Besides Lorelai, they were the most supportive people she knew. They had offered to buy her a condo in New York when she applied for the New York Times fellowship. They had bought her a car for her high school graduation. If Rory went to them with this they were just going to tell her to do what she thought was best.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much what Jess had said at Weston's. It wasn't like she expected a complete stranger to make a big life decision for her, but she kind of wished he would have. She thought maybe if she found someone who didn't know her and was completely unbiased to just look at the facts then they would tell her what to do. Jess had been annoyingly committal about the whole thing. His advice to do something that made her happy seemed like he was telling her to quit if this job didn't make her happy, but Rory couldn't even think of something practical that would make her happy.

Staying in Stars Hollow would make her happy, but she was almost embarrassed to admit it. For years she had talked about having a high flying journalism career, traveling the globe for stories and getting in on the action. She had gotten a great education at Yale and had been offered a job straight out of the gate. It had been amazing, and she knew a lot of people would kill for the opportunities that she'd been afforded. But Rory didn't necessarily like the expectations that set up. Stars Hollow was her home, but it wasn't exactly the kind of thriving place a professional journalist ended up.

Rory was about to just call it quits on making a decision and take a nap when April knocked on her open door. "Dad and Lorelai went out to pick up something for dinner," she said. "Do you want to help me pick a movie? Lorelai said I could pick the movie tonight, but I'm not exactly a movie buff."

Grateful to have something else to think about, Rory agreed and followed April into the living room. She didn't know April that well at all, but she seemed like a nice kid. She seemed to read and study a lot, which Rory respected. "I don't think a lot of these movies would interest you," Rory said, scanning their movie collection for something that might appeal to everyone. Given her and Lorelai's slightly eclectic taste in movies, it wasn't easy. Luke was easy going, but he had fallen asleep during Hardbodies before so his opinion on what made a movie good could not always be trusted. "Breakfast at Tiffany's is always good, but I'm sure you've seen that before."

"I've never seen it," April said immediately. "It looks so glamorous though. Everything looked more glamorous in those old movies."

"People were a lot more put together back then," Rory agreed, popping the DVD in. "At least, the ones they showed in the movies." Fast-forwarding through the previews, Rory cleared her throat. "So, do you really think my job sounds cool? The other night you seemed pretty interested in it."

April shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. I mean, writing isn't my favorite thing ever, but I would love to travel. There are so many places I want to go. I'm so jealous that you and your mom went backpacking in Europe. I have always wanted to go to Europe."

"Europe was amazing," Rory agreed. "I went there with my grandma before too. And last Christmas, actually."

"Oh, with your boyfriend, right?" April sighed. "That sounded so romantic. Roswell isn't exactly the city of love. Why'd you ask about your job, though? Don't you like it?"

"It's a great job," Rory said. She wasn't even lying. It was an amazing job, provided that you were actually interested in having it. Any job could be an amazing job if it was one you were passionate about. "It just gets kind of tiring sometimes. I like being at home, too."

"I guess I would miss my mom if I was traveling all the time too," April said. "But isn't it exciting seeing so many different places? You must meet the most amazing people."

"There isn't a lot of time to meet people when we stop, though. I'm usually around the other journalists all the time. There are a lot of us though, so I guess you do get to meet some cool people." Cool people that Rory had nothing in common with. So far she had cultivated exactly zero friendships.

"Do you have a boyfriend? Traveling around with a boyfriend would be so romantic."

"No," Rory said despondently. "No boyfriend. I had one a while back, but we broke up."

April made a face. "I think Luke said something about that. Was that the guy who moved to California?"

Rory liked April's version of the story so much better than the real version. She wasn't wrong in her facts, but they hadn't broken up because he moved to California. "Yeah. He wanted me to move with him, but I wanted to work on my career and stuff so I didn't want to be tied down to one place." And look where that had gotten her. She was seriously considering asking a teenager for career advice. "He actually wanted me to marry him, but it felt too soon." She had resisted the urge so far, but actually talking about Logan made her want to Google him to see how his company was doing. Maybe he was already with someone else. Maybe some other girl had said yes to marrying him.

For someone who seemed into all things romantic, April nodded appreciatively. "That was a smart choice," she said. "Who knows what would have happened if you said yes? You might be sitting at home right now without a job, playing solitaire on your computer or something."

Though it was supposed to make Rory feel better, she blushed. She played solitaire on her computer a lot when she was supposed to be listening to Obama's speeches. She had been incredibly vigilant in her note taking at first, but now she only jotted things when someone actually posed a unique question. It didn't happen a lot. For the first time it occurred to her that in addition to not liking her job, she might actually not be very good at it. What kind of serious journalist played virtual cards during the middle of an event she was supposed to be covering?

"You're totally right," Rory said, hoping to save face. "It was nice having someone around, though. My job can get kind of lonely sometimes."

"Do you mean like… you know…?"

That only caused Rory to blush more. "No! I just meant that it was nice to have that consistency. I don't even know why I'm talking about this, really. My mom asks me all the time if I've met any guys on the road and it's really annoying. I'm not even looking for a boyfriend. My career is way more important." It seemed like an important sisterly message to impart on April, even though she wasn't entirely sure she believed it.

"Of course it is," April said, eyeing the US Weekly that was laying on the coffee table. Rory was probably boring her already. "Hey, where did you go when you left earlier? I've been so bored here all day."

"I just met someone for coffee," Rory said casually. "Tomorrow you and I can go do something if you want, though. I'm sure I could borrow my mom's car if I dropped her off at work."

"Was it Lane? I really want to meet her babies. I love babies."

"No, actually. I met up with your cousin. Jess. He was interested in hearing more about my job and we didn't get to talk about it much at dinner the other night with everyone else around."

April nodded, but she didn't say anything. Rory relaxed, thinking she was in the clear. She was considering getting up and checking her email before dinner when she saw Lorelai's headlights pull into the driveway. Now that they were home with dinner, maybe things would go back to normal and Rory could stop talking about work and her romantic life. But just as she heard them start to walk up to the house, April spoke up.

"You know, if you married Jess our family tree would be really messed up."


End file.
